Mid Mile Logistics Service for E-commerce Business in the Philippines

Master The Middle Mile Game

From Luzon to Mindanao, bring your inventory closer to your customers and deliver orders faster with Locad. Streamline your middle mile and unlock your business success in the Philippines.

What is Middle Mile Logistics?

For enterprises and e-commerce businesses in the Philippines, efficient middle mile logistics is key to keeping your regional fulfillment centers stocked and sustaining your supply chain. Middle mile refers to the transportation of goods from suppliers and manufacturing plants to your warehouses, distribution centers, and retail outlets spread across the islands. The Philippines, as an archipelagic country, poses unique challenges in coordinating this leg of delivery across 7,641 islands.

To win in this expansive market, e-commerce businesses have to keep up with the rising customer expectations by offering fast shipping. Having a distributed network of warehouses, fulfillment centers and offline retail stores gives businesses that competitive edge through fast order delivery and fulfillment timelines.

Managing several transportation routes and inventory levels across multiple locations on different platforms can be complicated, resulting in inaccurate stock counts causing shipment delays or, worse, customers leaving your online store with empty carts.. Working with a logistics partner can help optimize middle mile transport based on your locations, volumes, and delivery timeline needs. They can coordinate multi-modal routes, provide visibility across movements, and balance cost with speed. This ensures your goods reach warehouses when needed to maintain stock levels and fulfill multi channel orders. 

Investing in middle mile logistics that seamlessly unifies your sales channels,  improves efficiency between purchase order and last mile delivery to your customers. This enables Philippine enterprises to improve their credibility with efficient fulfillment, meet customer expectations, and ultimately drive more sales.

What Is the Importance of Middle Mile Logistics in the Supply Chain Process?

While last-mile delivery is deemed to be important, it’s the middle mile that truly fuels the engine of Philippine e-commerce. This often-overlooked stage, responsible for moving goods from warehouses to distribution centers, holds the key to efficient e-commerce order fulfillment, customer satisfaction, and business success.

The Philippines’ vibrant nature does come with its own unique challenges. Complex logistics infrastructure, fragmented shipping options, and unpredictable terrain can cripple even the smoothest last-mile operation. When your middle mile logistics are effective, these gaps are bridged, and logistics are streamlined. 

Imagine your customer in Mindanao waiting weeks for an order from Manila. In a competitive market, such delays are deal-breakers and can impact your online store’s rating. Optimized middle mile routes, powered by technology and strategic partnerships with top logistics providers, minimize transit times, reduce logistics expenses, and expedite fulfillment making customers happy.

Discover E-commerce Opportunities with Middle Mile Logistics 

1. Tech Integration

• Real-time tracking: See exactly where your shipments are, understand cost-effective options for shipping out orders.
• Automated inventory management: Say goodbye to stockouts. Inventory management systems ensure the right products flow to the right places.
• Seamless data integration: Unify your store & logistics for effortless order fulfillment and visibility.

2. Partner With 3PL Providers

• Focus on your core business: Leave the logistics hassle to professionals while you get more time on hand to focus on growing your brand.
• Scale with ease: As your business expands, go light on infrastructure and partner with top  logistics partners in the region to scale up.

3. Cost Effectiveness

• Reduce last-mile costs: Optimized middle-mile routes cut unnecessary mileage and expenses.
• Boost inventory efficiency: Precise forecasting & warehousing can help optimize storage inventory and free up capital.
• Unlock new markets: Move your products to newer markets, faster and, expand your customer base without breaking the bank.

Cross Border With Middle Mile Logistics

The SEA e-commerce market is a land of opportunities both for Filipino e-commerce brands and wholesale suppliers. But conquering this diverse landscape demands more than just great products. This is where the cross-border middle mile comes into play. 

Bridging the Gap:

Forget slow, winding sea routes. Optimizing domestic middle mile operations within the Philippines is the first step. Streamlined warehouse-to-port movements, strategic partnerships with reliable logistics providers, and real-time shipment tracking will be your allies in eliminating any shipping delays and missing orders.

Navigating Customs:

Customs clearance can be quite tricky, considering how regulations vary from one country to another. Understanding SEA trade regulations and investing in digital customs solutions can fast-track your shipments, saving you time and money. Partnering with experienced cross-border logistics experts can help you avoid any unexpected bottlenecks and streamlines the paperwork journey.

Overcoming Challenges For Global Mid-Mile Logistics For The Philippine Market

For Philippine enterprises participating in global trade, efficiently moving goods from international suppliers and e-commerce wholesalers to domestic distribution hubs poses various hurdles. Complex documentation, inconsistent transit times, lack of shipment visibility, fluctuating costs, low coverage and poor infrastructure threaten the shopping and fulfillment experience.. 

However, with strategic planning and accurate forecasting, e-commerce brands easily overcome these challenges and ensure smooth and seamless operation. These strategies include:

• Work with a logistics partner with expertise in cross-border.
• Sync logistics, infrastructure and process to coordinate shipments with end-to-end visibility and tracking. 
• Partner with an expert who offer trade services, IoR and Sor capabilities to manage paperwork and ensure shipments reach their destination on time, every time
• Evaluate partners with sufficient capacity and redundancy to absorb demand fluctuations and scale appropriately.
• Consider a provider with both global scale and Philippine localization to handle geographic complexities.

How To Optimize Your Middle-Mile Logistics

Like Last-mile that directly impacts the journey of orders from regional hubs to customers, middle mile impacts product availability for shopping to take place. Securing your middle mile ensures that your online stores have enough SKUs closer to customers that convert clicks to carts.  Optimizing your middle mile logistics can be crucial and leads to transforming the challenges into customer satisfaction. Here’s how:

• Strategic Warehouses: Opt for a cost-effective distributed framework to store your inventory closer to key metro cities..
• Tech as Your Compass: Invest in tech for accurate real-time tracking, consolidating orders, automating processes, freight movement and route optimization.
• Inventory Clarity: Monitor inventory levels to avoid  overstocking, and carry out timely restocking with precise warehouse updates.
• Data-Driven Decisions: Access historical data, and timelines for actionable insights to continuously improve routes and strategies.
• Work with Experts: Leverage local logistics providers for deeper regional understanding.

How Locad Can Help

When exploring mid-mile logistics partners, Locad comes with years of helping brands fulfill orders and retain a stellar reputation among shoppers. With Locad’s mid mile and cross-border expertise, Philippine e-commerce businesses can confidently ensure that their sales channels have adequate inventory for a delightful shopping experience. They can partner with top e-commerce suppliers and wholesalers to bring quality e-commerce products and win customers.  

By unifying mid mile and last mile, Locad takes care of all things logistics and can ensure that your orders move from warehouses to websites and straight to customers seamlessly.

 Being a business owner, it can be tough to manage warehouses, monitor multiple sales channels and coordinate with multiple logistics partners at different stages in the supply chain. With Locad, you bring inventory management, efficient logistics, customized picking and packing, affordable shipping etc, all under one roof. Iron out the inconsistencies and keep shipping delays out of your supply chain.